At the end of the day, though, I don’t know where I would be without my mentor, Merilyn Simonds, who continues to offer support and guidance, and who, when she agreed to take me on as a mentee, truly made me think I might have a shot at this whole writing thing. Of course, I am also deeply grateful to my editor, Marc Côté, and to the entire team at Cormorant, for believing in this story and for making my dreams of becoming a novelist a reality.
Finally, and most importantly, a huge thank you to my family — Hannah and Jacob, who never complained about having to “find something quiet to do” while I worked, and Scott, who encouraged me in so many ways from the very beginning and who believed in me long before I believed in myself.
We acknowledge the sacred land on which Cormorant Books operates. It has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibway and allied nations to peaceably share and steward the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory.
